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[The Element]

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[bananafish94]

This unfortunately does not look very good. I think you're going to want to put a lot of time between this event and your application.

 

[Goro]

I think that if you explain exactly as you did here, and lead an exemplary life until app season, you might be able to dodge this bullet.

Greetings,

In April 2014, I regrettably was reported by one of my professors for submitting a paper that was flagged by the "turnitin" website for plagiarism. I admittedly took the blame for the occurrence since I did not in fact turn in an authentic lab report and explained my situation to both the professor and the dean. The professor gave me an F on the lab report and the dean emailed me and came to the conclusion that I should be placed on academic warning with no further administrative actions taken against me.

I do not have anything marked on my transcript. I emailed someone working in the college who is in charge of handling student misconducts and the representative explained that although it will not show on my transcript there is a file open for the incident. He explained I am still required to bring it up for when I apply to grad/med schools because they will disclose my file at the schools request. I was found out that after a few semesters the file that has been created would be expunged although I do not know when that will be. I am actually looking into that as we speak.

The situation that led to the reckless, stupid behavior was very tragic. I was experiencing a lot of stress at the pharmacy I used to work for, I had financial troubles I was fighting to get out of, a death in the family, and family issues. All of these things were all happening at once and, consequently, I just did not know how to handle it well at the time.

My question to you is how do I approach this situation when applying to SMP's/MD/DO schools? I am unsure on how to explain in detail everything that occurred at the time since I consider that time to be a very sensitive and, quite frankly embarrassing, time in my life. I just do not know how explain myself to complete strangers who might not fully understand who I am or know how I am in person. It was very out of character for me to perform this type of infraction and I am ashamed of something that I did out of desperation. If it's a warning, does that could as a disciplinary action for when I apply to schools? If it gets expunged, is it then at my own discretion to discuss the infraction?

 

[gonnif]

it must be reported no matter expunged or not.

 

[NimbleNavigator]

This unfortunately does not look very good. I think you're going to want to put a lot of time between this event and your application.

There should be a phrase to describe how SDN constantly tries to push gap years on people...

 

[QueenAudrey]

You might get a better response from schools if you actually take responsibility for what you did and stop making excuses. Your whole post reads like someone who feels like the victim in this situation. You're not Jean Valjean stealing a loaf of bread for his sister's starving children. You cheated. You plagiarized. No amount of "tragic" circumstances in your life can make those things okay. Make sure you have someone read over your IA write-up before you submit it to AMCAS to avoid having it come across this way.

 

[NimbleNavigator]

You might get a better response from schools if you actually take responsibility for what you did and stop making excuses. Your whole post reads like someone who feels like the victim in this situation. You're not Jean Valjean stealing a loaf of bread for his sister's starving children. You cheated. You plagiarized. No amount of "tragic" circumstances in your life can make those things okay. Make sure you have someone read over your IA write-up before you submit it to AMCAS to avoid having it come across this way.

Yeah, I agree.

OP - Lots of other people have been in your situation, and most of them didn't come to the conclusion that the only way out was to cheat.

My opinion - and this is just one man's opinion, so don't take it as gospel - is that you should describe the situation you were going through and how stressed it made you. Probably won't garner much sympathy, but hey it's better than nothing. Then, describe how when you were caught, you realized what a horrible thing you had done and how it went against everything you believed in. That's why you came clean and resolved that no matter how tough the situation is, sacrificing your morals is never worth it.

...something like that, idk bro

 

[deleted778326]

I think that if you explain exactly as you did here, and lead an exemplary life until app season, you might be able to dodge this bullet.

I agree with this.

 

[bananafish94]

There should be a phrase to describe how SDN constantly tries to push gap years on people...

Just my personal opinion, but I think that there will come a time where taking a gap year is the norm. Sometimes it's nigh on unavoidable, like if your GPA isn't high enough and you need to do some kind of SMP, or if you don't have any clinical experience and need to work for a year as a scribe or EMT in order to be competitive. In this case, it's more nuanced. We don't have any information about the rest of the OP's application, but even if it is phenomenal this will still be scrutinized. Personally I think chalking it up to a stupid one-time mistake has a lot more credibility when it is viewed in the context of being a productive member of society for a few years before applying, rather than applying straight out of college.

 

[ace_inhibitor111]

Excuses or not, if that's what really happened, that's what really happened. It will still be viewed negatively, but it's still a lot better than "I was young and stupid, and didn't think I'd get caught (???)"

 

[meddesire]

.